Slightly Copy/pasted b/c I have no time today. Re-ask what isn't clear to you, so I can tell what to explain further or in general:
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is ALG. That's mandatory and starts at 8 AM.
You have FMP on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting around 10 AM. Some of these are mandatory, some aren't.
On Thursdays, you have Scholar's Workshop. That starts at 8 AM and is sometimes not mandatory.
We wouldn't be here if we didn't care about the community. Genuinely. Cooper does a great job at stating its mission, giving back, and actually caring. They'll see if you fit that bill during your interviews. I think we have a chip on our shoulder, being surrounded by Penn, etc. and being new, that we really strive to put our heads down and go to work, and for the right reasons. There's minimal show-boating w/ helping poverty-porn or patting us or the school on the back. I mean that in terms of: we as a school and definitely as a student body don't need cameras to be on us in order to hand out a sandwich or help someone cross the street, if you get my point.
There is a lot of mandatory stuff that's required. It is a drag sometimes, but I take this route: everything has a purpose, and you can either become cynical and burnt-out complaining about all these mandatory events, or you can go in and try to get at least one positive thing from that event. Any bit of learning, POVs, etc. is a win and will make you a better person and doctor. Example: you don't want to necessarily be that person who scoffs at the presentation to do Anki. I always say remove the stick and pay attention; there's something they want you to get out of this (or something you can get out of this).
Best part: I love clinic. It's once every couple of weeks, but as soon as you get your white coat, you have patients with your entirely student-run team. You learn so much if you want to, and you'll be able to give better reports than a lot of residents can (actually has come up; in 3rd year, people have gotten compliments from residents b/c they're "so much better at this" than some of their colleagues).
I love WOW as well. You get a week free of classes to go in the hospital on different services and just learn. No expectations. Just observe if you want. All the way up to being so involved you think it's dangerous that the attending is letting you do it. I walked onto my ICU rotation on nights, and there was an immediate peri-arrest. I asked to go in and help the nurses, should the pt spiral. And damned if I didn't have the best time in that room, being more than just a student.
I'll be honest and real always, b/c I believe you should go to wherever you're happy, not be suckered into a place that you're miserable at. Medical school is hard (but overblown in difficulty in my opinion) and so your mental health is arguably the most important resource to protect. You want your institution to reflect that goal.
CMSRU does an excellent job caring for us. The staff sees us as humans, and we have great programs and to make sure to catch you before you fall. We even have a psychiatrist that partners with us from Rowan and a large portion of her days are in appointments w/ students. That is, if need be. Point being that she has blocks of time dedicated just for us. And, our PCP is in-house, and she's great. Very easy to get appointments with her and she takes time with us to help us out. Again, she has specific blocks of time for us, if need be. And she's so willing to do anything for us that she'll move appointments around to see you.
Liz is our student support specialist. She's awesome. You can talk to her for literally anything. She welcomes you to talk to her, good or bad, and if she doesn't have an answer, she'll get one. I've emailed her countless times. And if we're being honest, she has, along with our PCP Dr. Rosengarten and our psychiatrist Dr. Maymind, literally saved my life. Due to circumstances, I was in a very bad place and had no real outlet, and they pulled me back. So, Cooper cares. I can promise you that.
We have resources. What do you mean specifically? We have a great program that is very intertwined with the hospital. Everyone wants to teach, and it shows. Barely anyone is here just to get grant money, and that's reflected in the lack of inattentiveness towards us and our education. Don't get me wrong, Cooper does silly, stupid things from time to time, but that's not big. An example being, an admin emailed a private reply meant for a student to the entire class; it was nothing bad, but the whole concept was embarrassing. Pretty funny for everyone in the end though!
Plenty of opportunities for mentorship and leadership. We have a 'dating' event where everyone gets together (CMSRU and hospital faculty) and you round robin, learning about their research on your own time. It's very successful, and builds good rapport. And research is as easy as emailing someone. Most get back to you, but there's always work to be done. Benchwork or clinical, and we just opened a new joint science research building (you probably know this) and received a huge research grant that's been attracting a lot of big names to us.
Classes are recorded, certain things aren't. Lecture is, but for example, most interactive sessions aren't. They just don't record well, so there's no point. I like the structure that Cooper has, and they teach you to be a good doctor and person, and not just a robot. I like that. We have FMP, our doctoring course, w/ many hands-on lessions in the sim center. Then scholar's which, is not my favorite (I hate stats), but necessary for step eventually. The second year scholar's is far less stats, and more just discussions.
The first 8 (?) weeks are fundamentals, and so they really bring you up to speed. They don't throw you into cardio. It's a very friendly start, especially to, example, those who haven't been to school in a while or who weren't science majors. I used it as time to find out what worked for me in medical school.
Week on the wards was my favorite part, as you get a full week of nothing but shadowing and goofing off in the hospital on many different rotations, just for experience and learning what they all do. So amazing, I worked on a code [read: compressions] in the ICU, saw an ICU pt into surgery to fix her broken gastric bypass, saw a case of AFM on the meds floor. Speaking of peds, I went in not caring about peds at all, and as a result of doing WoW, I'm probably 20% into peds now. I did overnights and it was so amazing, parents love you, etc. And the best part: no expectations right off from them about you. You're free to do as much or as little as you want, and they won't be mad (don't do this though, really try to get involved!). Multiple surgeries, a davinci bilateral hysterectomy.
And clinic. In September, you start seeing pts at the clinic in a team. Many others don't do this like we do. We see uninsured Camden pts, and your team methodically works through their cases. M1s do Hx, M2s PE, and M3s A/P. But it's all in the team, and that's what's nice; you always have a safety net. And the attendings are amazing and so helpful and talented in teaching. I get a lot out of this. It's been said on multiple occasions that people in the hospital are genuinely impressed when they learn in 3rd year that we aren't paper weights and actually can provide way-above-average verbal reports. The same goes for residents from Cooper; their programs have went, "woah, you aren't useless? I don't have to teach you how to give a decent report? This is great!".
Plenty of free time to do whatever, so a life is possible. Cooper encourages that (again, health is key). Plenty to do in the suburbs and plenty to do across the bridge in Philly, and both are a ten minute PATCO ride (the rail system is amazing, much unlike what I'm used back home).
Oh, and we do community service, but I like it here b/c Cooper doesn't do it for publicity or anything; our mission is to give back to the community, and that's what we do (above and beyond). And we don't, and the institution doesn't, hold cameras out before we go to serve, if you know what I mean. We put our heads down, and do the work that we set out to do, and do much more than simply checking boxes for service.
